Hello: I am on a museum exhibit-development team and have a question about an intro-level genetics demo we're working on. In the demo, we'll show two parents and a small sample of the genes they each pass on to their offspring. Each parent's "population" of chromosomes will consist of 7 genes (e.g., eye color, hair color, etc), and each gene can take on one of two settings, which allows visitors to experiment by seeing how different combinations of genes create offspring with a wide range of traits. Obviously, we are greatly simplifying the real situation by both reducing each parent's chromosome set to 7 and by ignoring various complexities, like some traits being sex-linked, etc. My question is: With two sets of 7 wheels (14 total), each of which can take on two settings, what is the correct formula to use for determining the total possible number of distinct outcomes? 14 choose 2?
Thank you!
Thank you!